I received two calls from the Board of Equalization late this week claiming information in a story I wrote about the latest tobacco tax bill was wrong. The calls were from Venus Stromberg, spokeswoman, and Brian Miller, tax counsel.

SB 768, by state Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, would increase the state’s cigarette tax another $2 a pack from the current 87 cents. That would be a 230 percent hike, to $2.87.

I wrote, “The State Board of Equalization has found that California will actually lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue if SB 768 passes. Even legislators have become weary of funding programs using tobacco tax revenue because of its instability.”

There’s no doubt that smoking is a detrimental practice; no matter how light some cigarettes are, they still do harm to the body. Yet in Egypt, about 40% of adult men and 8% of adult women are smokers, and since 25 January, access to cigarettes has only increased, as new brands have entered the Egyptian market illegally and are sold at cheaper prices. The Daily News Egypt looks into the issue of smuggled cigarettes and their additional harmful impact on smokers

The Government U-turn on the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products has been welcomed by manufacturers and condemned by health campaigners. Here, Grant Woodward and Will O’Reilly present the two sides of the debate.

GRANT WOODWARD

WATCHING a relative wheeze their way through their final days, hooked up to an oxygen tank that sits incongruously in their neat front room, cannot fail to have an effect on you.

In my case, it convinced me that I had been right to ditch the smoking habit picked up during my years at university. Seeing someone caught in the grip of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease will do that.

SADAO (Thailand), July 24 (Bernama) — The smart partnership between Malaysian and Thai Customs resulted in the seizure of 127,500 cartons of cigarettes worth 488,161 bath (RM1 equivalent to 9.5 bath) which were to be marketed in the country from the neighbour.

Southern Thailand Fourth Bureau Customs director Prayud Panichot said the success was possible based exchange of information between the two departments.

“As a result of the close cooperation, two lorry drivers, aged 21 and 27 years, and two ten-tonne lorries which were carrying 75,000 carton of John Red cigarettes and 52,500 cartons of John White respectively were detained at the Sadao Customs Complex on June 7 .